I’m knitting backwards for Christmas

A bit of poetic licence with the title, I must confess. Personally, I prefer to follow the forwards arrow of time. It’s actually Shana who has been knitting backwards. (If she wants to explain the details, I’ll leave it up to her 🙂 )

Basically, this backwards knitting is a way to selectively undo a passage of knitting when you’ve made a little mistake or simply gotten carried away and knitted too much. It’s a less destructive method than just grabbing the end of the yarn and pulling like a terrier chasing after a string of sausages at the butcher’s.

Anyway, Shana was helping me out a little while ago when I was knitting a scarf each for my Ma and Pa. These scarves will become one of their Christmas presents this year. They are unlikely to see this post as they are not connected to the Internet, so for the rest of the world here’s what they look like. (The scarves, that is. Not my parents.)

The one above is mother’s scarf. And the one below is my Dad’s. If they want to swap scarves, that’s up to them, but pink really is not Pop’s colour.

They are both acrylic (the scarves, that is… 🙂 ) and were knitted by me (with some weaving in of ends completed by Shana) using King Cole Big Value chunky yarn. I used 6mm bamboo needles to make Dad’s scarf, and (horror of horrors!) 6mm plastic needles to make Mum’s. With all this acrylic and plastic around, I can see I’m likely to get turfed out of the knitting circle pretty soon 🙂

Back to Shana’s prowess at backwards knitting, though. ‘If you were to video record me doing this and then ran the footage the other way, I would look as if I were knitting forwards,’ said Shana.

‘That’s nothing,’ I said. ‘If you were to record me knitting forwards and then played the tape, it would look like a still photograph, such is my lack of speed.’

Suddenly, Shana had a serious moment. As some of our readers know, she is allergic to acrylic yarn and if she handles it too much she can develop blisters on the hands and will feel very unwell for a long time afterwards. ‘Do you know what to do if I go into anaphylactic shock?’ she said.

‘Not sure,’ I replied. ‘Does it involve having to throw a bucket of water over you, by any chance?’

‘Just you try it!’ said Shana, meaning the opposite.

‘Oh all right then,’ I said, starting to take the question less lightly. ‘I suppose II’d have to cook my own supper. Buttered bread crusts again, then 😦 .’

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One thought on “I’m knitting backwards for Christmas”

Love the scarves – and why shouldn’t Pop have the pink? I’m sure he’d still look manly in it 🙂
I do feel for Shana – I’m allergic to wools of all descriptions, which is a pain in more than one way, as there are so very many types that are absolutely gorgeous!
Like you, I use acrylics a lot, with cotton, silk, bamboo, or a mix of this type, used for special projects – I’m just grateful that there are so many other things than wool nowadays, or I’d really have to cut back in my crocheting! 🙂
It’s also good that there are ways to help stave off aniphilactic shock, too! I love history, and the more i’ve learned about the hazards to our health in the past, the more grateful I am that I was born in modern times – I hope you both can cope well if, in the terrible event of Shana having an attack, you have to 😦